School Committee Candidate Profile: Anne Blanchard

The race for School Committee will be closely watched here in Natick in tomorrow's Town Election, when voters will be asked to choose two candidates from the four on the ballot.

This is one of just two contested races in the election (the other being Morse Institute Library Trustees), and Natick residents feel strongly about the importance of their schools.

One familiar name on the ballot will be Anne Blanchard, the current Vice Chair of the School Committee who is seeking re-election. We recently communicated with Blanchard via email to find out more about her and the qualifications she brings to the School Committee, what she's most proud of accomplishing as a member of the School Committee and what she'd like to do if re-elected.

Patch: While many people are familiar with you and some of the things you’ve worked on and accomplished already as a member of the School Committee, could you tell us a little about yourself and your background for people who are new to the Natick community or maybe just aren’t as familiar with the many things that have gone on in the school system over the past few years?

Anne Blanchard: From my website, www.electanneblanchard.com:

Anne is a parent of a 5th grader and an 8th grader and has lived in Natick for 19 years. From their home in West Natick, she and her spouse have seen many changes come to Natick - the new mall, new residential towers, MathWorks expansion and 11% enrollment growth in the schools in just 5 years.

A graduate of Dartmouth College, with a Wharton MBA, Anne brings both a liberal arts and a business background to her volunteer service on the School Committee. Other signficant service includes:

• Natick Town Meeting Member: 2004-2010
• Vestry Member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church 2003 - 2006
• President of the Wayland Community Pool Trustees: 1998

Anne worked in high tech marketing for 14 years.

Patch: What are a couple (or maybe a few) of the things that you’re most proud about having accomplished in the time you’ve spent on the Natick School Committee?

Blanchard:

• Completing the high school on time and under budget.
• Implementing Professional Learning Communities for our teachers.
• No teacher layoffs, despite difficult economic times.  
• Adopting the Common Core curriculum at the high school and making writing a major focus of the district.
• An award-winning implementation of the laptop 1:1 program: we are not wasting money throwing technology at our schools, but fully integrating it with our curriculum in order to better prepare students for a world where technology plays a role in every job and career.

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Patch: What do you think are the most important issues facing the Natick Public Schools right now, and what will you do to address them if you’re re-elected?

Blanchard: We need to spend some time as a committee, working with the Administration to come up with a master plan for our increasing enrollment.  The plan has to have both short term and long term solutions at every level of the school system. We need to involve the community in these discussions, and get the town’s input.

Patch: I believe that whenever a person takes on a big responsibility, such as being a member of the School Committee, it’s an ongoing learning process as to how to do things, the best way to do things and a variety of other things as well (with the School Committee, for example, I’m sure there is a lot to learn about policies, procedure and the laws regarding what schools can and can’t do). What have you learned from your time serving on the School Committee, and what, if anything, would you change or do differently?

Blanchard: The biggest mistake I have made, and the committee has made during my tenure is to allow the laptops to be budgeted under the high school building contingency fund and having this be a surprise to the community.  This broke trust with many members of the community who fully supported the high school building project, but thought contingency funds could only be used for the building itself.  Big priorities like this need community support and should not be funded indirectly without publicizing it and getting community buy-in to the source of funding.Lastly, why are you running for re-election?

Patch: Lastly, why are you running for re-election?

Blanchard: My children are still in this school system and there is still lots more to do!

To learn more about Anne Blanchard and her quest for re-election, visit her campaign website.